Judging from the scene on the linked webpage, the airplane may have slidden on the runway, because of frozen surface.
What surprised me is the number of passengers who boarded the airplane. 161 passengers were on the airplane. Shonai Airport is one of two airports in Yamagata prefecture, which has less than 1170 thousand residents. The other airport is Yamagata Airport. These two are competing to get more passengers.
What was worse, opening of Yamagata Shinkansen(high speed rail) led the number of passengers of Yamagata Airport into a sudden decline.
With decreasing population of Yamagata Prefecture, the airports will confront the crisis of being abandoned.
